Bipartisan Bill Would Reclassify Marijuana as Schedule 3 Substance

Bipartisan legislation proposed in the House on Thursday would make marijuana a Schedule 3 drug, removing cannabis from its current standing as a Schedule 1 substance alongside deadly contraband including ecstasy and heroin.

By reclassifying weed in the same category as anabolic steroids, Congress would “make it easier for ill-patients and scientific and medical researchers to obtain marijuana,” the bill’s authors said in a statement Thursday.

On the heels of a bicameral effort to outright legalize weed offered a week earlier, Thursday’s proposal by freshmen Florida Reps. Matt Gaetz, a Republican, and Darren Soto, a Democrat, aims to roll back the federal government’s ongoing pot prohibition to a lesser extent by removing existing hurdles said to be hindering researchers’ ability to understand the plant’s potential benefits.